Mt. Pleasant family accused of selling marijuana illegally

By rick mills/@RickMills2

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

A Mt. Pleasant family used a downtown business to grow and sell marijuana, exceeding state medicinal limits on plants and product, while hoarding cash, reporting very little income and gambling away nearly a half-million dollars at the Soaring Eagle Casino, officials allege.

Located at 311 W. Michigan St., the medical marijuana operation was in the same building, but not the same space, as the unrelated former Compassionate Apothecary, which was the focus of legal wrangling that eventually led the Michigan Supreme Court to outlaw medical marijuana dispensaries statewide.

Narcotics investigators first began investigating the separate business last fall.

An officer smelled marijuana and a drug dog alerted on the building and a nearby car in November, according to court documents.

Although the initial focus of the probe was Dennis J. Huber, an ex-con caught selling synthetic drugs in 2008 and again last year, the investigation would later snare both Huber’s mother in a civil property forfeiture proceeding and her husband in criminal and civil cases.

And Huber’s mother, Ruth A. Inman, along with her husband, is the focus of a forfeiture case in which Isabella prosecutors seek both ownership of cash taken in the investigation and the Michigan Street business location, among other things.

After the November suspicion by a drug officer and dog, police next had contact with Huber while conducting a drug investigation at Jamestown Apartments on Isabella Road southeast of Mt. Pleasant in January, according to documents.

In that case, Huber allegedly sold a half-ounce of marijuana to another man, who told police he frequently bought from Huber and resold the marijuana on the streets.

Officers from the Bay Area Narcotics Enforcement Team later targeted Huber with controlled buys of marijuana, using confidential informants, in late February and early March before targeting another customer in a traffic stop in mid-March.

In that traffic stop, the driver – who had nine ounces of marijuana and almost eight ounces of marijuana-laced butter in his car – told police he bought up to a half-pound of marijuana a day from Huber and resold it at a profit approaching $7,000 a week, court records indicate.

It was that traffic stop that first expanded the focus to include Donald Inman, who prosecutors allege owned the marijuana growing and distribution business Huber operated and, along with his wife, also owned the commercial property that housed it.

Although the driver in the traffic stop had never met Donald Inman, it was Inman who was listed as his caregiver under medical marijuana laws, according to court filings.

Investigators say that all three family members, both Inmans and Huber, are licensed patients and caregivers under the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act.

But they allege that marijuana was being distributed outside of the process allowed by law and that both their growing marijuana plants and harvested product exceeded allowable limits.

On March 14, BAYANET officers seized 252 plants and three pounds of processed marijuana.

They also allege that none of the final marijuana product was stored in separate and locked facilities, divided by patient, as required under law, court records indicate.

Prosecutors say the trio, all medical marijuana patients themselves and licensed caregivers, were allowed a maximum of 216 plants.

In seeking to keep both cash and the commercial property, prosecutors also argue that Ruth Inman did not file federal income tax returns from 2010 to 2012, and that Donald Inman reported adjusted gross income of $877 in 2010, $4,800 in 2011 and $7,359 in 2012 and did not claim any profit or loss from the medical marijuana operation, prosecutors claim.

Yet court records indicate that, between them, the three gambled $472,882 at the Soaring Eagle Casino in 2012 and the first three months of this year. Individually, officials claim Ruth Inman gambled $214,725, Donald Inman gambled $37,216 and Dennis Huber gambled $220,941.

Officials are using the reported income and gambled cash, in part, to prove that both property and cash seized in the investigation are proceeds from an illegal drug operation unless the couple can show other sources for the income.

Besides the commercial property, officers seized $50,000 from a bank safety deposit box and $13,702 from checking and savings accounts.

Prosecutors also allege other money may have been hidden and later recovered, pointing to a conversation from jail between Huber and his mother.

In that conversation, investigators allege Huber used the “coded” word “cat treats” to describe where additional money was hidden.

Dennis Huber, who was still on parole supervision for his earlier drug sentence when he was arrested, faces trial July 29 before Isabella Trial Court Judge Mark Duthie on four counts of marijuana delivery or manufacture, one count of conspiracy to distribute and one count of operating a drug house. He’s also being charged as a habitual offender which could double the most serious charges to eight years and a $40,000 fine each.

Donald Inman faces trial July 22 before Judge Paul Chamberlain on charges of manufacturing marijuana, conspiracy to deliver and operating a drug house.

Civil proceedings to keep the property of Donald and Ruth Inman are scheduled before Judge Duthie beginning July 15.

Donald Inman is free after posting $4,000 of a $40,000 bond.

Huber posted $13,000 on a $130,000 bond.

Rick Mills is the editor of the Morning Sun. He may be reached at 989-779-6003, rmills@michigannewspapers.com or follow him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rick.mills.399?fref=ts.